You know, even machines need a break now and again. This weekend our jazz.net servers will get much deserved holiday for 36 hours.

If you're a Jazz.net member we trust you've already received communications regarding this planned outage. If you've not, you may want to take a moment to read over the following information so you are prepared for this weekend's pending scheduled outage.

The purpose of the Virtual Rational User Group for Systems Engineering (VRUC SE) is to facilitate information sharing and group discussions around the topics of systems engineering and how IBM Rational methods and tools can be applied in these endeavors. The VRUC SE offers meetings and presentations available to all clients no matter where they are located through virtual events. All you need to do is go to the following link and join, then check out our upcoming presentations and events!

These communities are another great way to help you, our clients, stay educated on our products and solutions. These VRUC meetings also will give you a chance to ask our experts questions in a live format!

It was back to school for many last week and into this week as well. Now that the barbecue has cooled, kids are off learning, and the house is quiet once again, let's take the opportunity to focus and get some of those administrative tasks we've all been putting off dealt with once and for all. That in mind, let us help! On the tail of yesterday's post guiding you through Fix Central downloads, here's a list of the latest downloads over the past few weeks from Rational Support to help you find the fixes you need:

Ah, yes, it IS that time of year when many Americans roll out that one last big blow-out barbecue party before the summer comes to a close and we look toward welcoming winter, albeit a bit trepidatiously. While the holiday has indeed come to symbolize the end of summer for many of us (it isn't, summer doesn't end until September 22), it started and remains as an American federal holiday to honor the worker; a day when we recognize the contributions of the American worker by relaxing and eating lots of BBQ

All this, of course, means your loyal blog admins are off galavanting (or just sitting on the sofa) and not actively working today. But that doesn't mean we don't have some good content for you! In this case, it is a new video from IBM Electronic Support guiding us all on how to download software from the Fix Central repositories. Take note, this video will come in quite handy after tomorrows blog post, so take a look and then stay tuned!

Along with Luis SuarezKelly Smith and I continue driving and evangelizing the idea in hopes it will take hold and help create a new business culture of open, transparent, and collaborative work. To that end, I recently built a presentation now hosted on Slideshare to help illustrate our efforts as we documented them here in our Notes from Rational Support "WOTI" blog series. We've tried to distill the core concepts, ideals, and recommendations down to their essence and provide an easy to consume presentation. I hope you not only enjoy the presentation deck, but also find it helpful in your own quest to reduce email and increase your effectiveness.